Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I am reading a book at the moment called The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity by Skye Jethani. I am reading it with the church leadership from my church. I just finished the second chapter and have fully enjoyed the book. This second chapter, The Canvas of Silence, focuses on how our lives are filled with words from music, computers, TV and a host of other areas. Because of this we have a hard time letting our minds comprehend the big things in life. Our lives are so filled with the noise of words, read or heard, that we can’t begin to fathom the greatness of our maker.

How do we break from these things that hold us down? How do we create a “quiet time” that goes beyond “quiet” and goes to an Amazing time? “But finding true silence requires more than quieting our surroundings. It also requires our souls. This is the real dilemma of living in a wordy world. Even when we are still and alone, like the minutes before falling asleep in bed, our minds are racing with the images and words we’ve marinated in all day. It is inner silence that eludes us (pg. 33)”.

How do we quite our souls so we can comprehend to vastness of God? How do truly quite our world so that we may hear from God? I challenged myself this morning to go to the river/creek a block away from the house to silence my world. I had to fight against taking my mp3 player or my cell phone or my watch. I also fought against wanting to pray or talk to God. Yes, I did not want to pray. Because I wanted to be silent and know that He is God.

I couldn’t help to wonder why the water spiders (that is what we call the guys that are like spiders that skate on the top of the water) dart back and forth on the water. Or, why the water snails aren’t bigger. They have so much food but seem to only eat what they need to survive (novel concept). God has so incredibly woven this blue ball in which we live into a beautiful dance. I so want to hear that music.

I want to encourage wives to allow their husbands to seek some solitude. Husbands watch the kids for your wife so she can get away for an hour of silence time. But here is the catch. Don’t use that time to nap, to use your smartphone, or to pray (that will come in time). Use that time to ponder your existence, to ponder the vastness in which we live and to ponder the things beyond us. Does this sound to weird for you? It might, but people have been doing just this since the beginning of mankind.

Pondering the bigness of God comes fairly easy to me, but this exercise is a good reminder of his bigness. The bible says we’re “fearfully and wonderfully made”. Can you grasp that, I can’t, but God can begin to help me understand it.

Cool Links

About Me

I am a husband, a father, a youth pastor, a friend, a son, a brother and a lover of God.
Can I just clear one thing up, God ROCKS! I understand many people don't portray God very well and therefore many people have some pretty crazy ideas of Him. But, He loves us and wants the best for us. It is the figuring out "the best for us" that makes things tough.